Destruction of accounting records
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Upon expiration of the statutory periods, the following documents in particular may be destroyed after December 31, 2018:
All documents that are relevant for understanding and verifying the record-keeping obligations must be retained; this applies both to documents in paper form and to all documents in the form of data, data sets and electronic documents that show that the regulatory requirements and their compliance have been implemented.
Incoming electronic invoices, commercial and business letters, or other significant documents must be retained unchanged in the format in which they were received (e.g., in PDF or image format); they must not be deleted before the retention period expires.
Incoming electronic invoices, commercial and business letters, or other significant documents must be retained unchanged in the format in which they were received (e.g., in PDF or image format); they must not be deleted before the retention period expires.
Conversion to another format is only permissible if machine evaluability (by the tax authorities) is not restricted and no changes are made to the content. The same applies to self-generated documents, such as outgoing invoices.
If paper documents are converted into electronic documents (“scanned”), the procedure must be documented, which ensures in particular that the content is identical to the original and that it is legible and complete.
The retention periods also apply to the data relevant for tax and social security purposes in the company’s IT system (financial, asset and payroll accounting). During the retention period, access to this data must be possible.
The retention period begins
with the end of the calendar year in which the last entry was made in the book, the inventory, the opening balance sheet, the annual financial statements or the management report was prepared, the commercial or business letter was received or sent, or the accounting document was created, furthermore the recording was made or the other documents were created.
However, the destruction of documents is not permitted if the deadline for the tax assessment has not yet expired (cf. Sections 169, 170 AO).
When deciding on the destruction of accounting documents, it is also important to consider whether and which documents should continue to be kept as evidence for a later audit or for a possible legal appeal – despite the official possibility of destruction.
(For further comments, information and examples, please refer to our information letter 02/2019).
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[/vc_message][ultimate_spacer height=”50″]Neumann & Walczak – tax consulting company GmbH – Robert-Bosch-Strasse 1 – 59439 Holzwickede
Neumann & Walczak Tax Consultants – Partnership –
Robert-Bosch-Strasse 1 – 59439 Holzwickede
Website: www.neumann-walczak.de – E-mail: info@neumann-walczak.de
Phone: (0049) 02301 – 91 291 0 – Fax: (0049) 02301 – 91 291 21